South East London blogzine - things that are happening, things that happened, things that should never have happened. New Cross, Brockley, Deptford and other beauty spots. EMAIL US: transpontineblog at gmail.com Transpontine: 'on the other (i.e. the south) side of the bridges over the Thames; pertaining to or like the lurid melodrama played in theatres there in the 19th century'.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Blowing Up Greenwich

Here’s an art exhibition in south east London inspired by a peculiar piece of Greenwich History:Greenwich Degree Zero

It's on until 2 April 2006 on Wednesdays to ­ Sundays 12-6pm.

“Greenwich Degree Zero is the first collaboration between artist Rod Dickinson [of various crop-circles and the "air loom" fame] and artist/novelist Tom McCarthy. The artists' starting point is a strange late nineteenth-century event: on the afternoon of February 15th, 1894, a French anarchist named Martial Bourdin was killed when the bomb he was carrying detonated. The explosion took place on the slope beneath the Royal Observatory in London's Greenwich Park, and it was generally assumed that his intention had been to blow up this building — the place from which all time throughout the British Empire and the world was measured and regulated.”

"In Greenwich Degree Zero, Rod Dickinson and Tom McCarthy re-imagine Bourdin’s act as a successful attack on the Observatory. The resulting installation reports an event that did not quite happen, blurring the distinction between fact and fiction and relocating the genuine public outrage and hysteria about the threat of anarchist terror that prevailed in the 1890s in this ambiguous space of non-event."For more information, contact Rachel Fleming-Mulford,T: 020 7582 6465 E: rachel@beaconsfield.ltd.uk

I am always looking for new musical/historical threads to weave into the tapestry of the Transpontine mythology. But I must admit I was ver...

Editorial policy

- No personal attacks;

- No party politics;

- No puff pieces for commercial businesses (but reserve the right to say nice things about pubs, cafes and bookshops)

- Mentioning something here doesn't imply an endorsement.

If you don't like it leave a comment or start your own blog. Comments are subject to approval mainly to prevent spam, critical ones are welcome, but personal attacks or racist nonsense won't get approved.